A racially charged Don Rickles joke will be cut from TV Land’s American Film Institute tribute to Shirley MacLaine when the program airs at 9 p.m. ET/PT on June 24.

Rickles caused a stir last Thursday night when he cracked a joke comparing Obama to a janitor at the Shirley MacLaine tribute show. “President Obama is a personal friend of mine,” said Rickles at the event. “He was over to the house yesterday, but the mop broke.”

A TV Land spokesperson gave a cautious statement to The Hollywood Reporter when asked about the off-color joke, simply saying, “It’s not going to make it on the air — that’s all I’ll say about it.”

Rickles, who is famous for being (a) an insults comic and (b) about 900 years old (he seems to be more easily forgiven for this kind of thing, coming as he does from “another generation”), is well-known for close-to-the-knuckle jokes. Yet the comedian is not being censored, according to his representative:

“He is not being censored. Before all of this started, we knew Don’s spot would be cut a bit for time, as would others, including possibly Shirley herself since the show ran over and we knew it was likely that might be edited. This is a non-story and requires no further comment.”

This is not implausible, either. The black-tie evening at which Rickles cracked his slightly odious joke lasted four hours. The network’s telecast will run just 90 minutes.

Rickles’ other material at the event took pot shots at celebs such as Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and MacLaine herself.

Don Rickles’ Obama Joke Cut From Broadcast By Viacom is a post from: The Inquisitr

Don Rickles told a racial joke where he compared President Obama to a janitor Thursday night, in a racially charged bit of humor that may have pushed the envelope a bit too far.  Rickles told the joke at the American Film Institute’s tribute to Shirley MacLaine this past Thursday night.  Critics say that type of humor may have had a place in the past but in today’s world that type of racist humor should be left out.

Rickles told the crowd, according to The Hollywood Reporter,

“I shouldn’t make fun of the blacks. President Obama is a personal friend of mine. He was over to the house yesterday, but the mop broke.”

Rickles has long been known to include that type of racial humor in his act and there was a time and place where it may have been considered acceptable, but as the relationships between African-Americans and whites becomes less confrontational it is becoming a lot more rare to hear jokes like Rickles in a public forum.

Rickles is not new to the race game nor even to using racial jokes about President Obama.  When Obama was elected in 2008, Rickles went on the “Late Show With David Letterman” and let loose some humor about Obama playing basketball in the White House during a national emergency.  The audience was audibly squeamish, just as the audience at the AFI event was.

Rickles, due to his age and the era he represents is not likely to bring about the backlash that other comedians get when they insult the President, there is a good chance that in a backroom somewhere, someone is telling Rickles to cool it next time out.

Don Rickles Tells Obama Racial Joke, May Have Gone Too Far is a post from: The Inquisitr